The next couple of posts will not be in chronological order. I’m a bit lagging with uploading the pictures here, and insert some random comment alongside of it. The pictures are always uploaded very quickly to the facebook photo album. They will also be posted here, but there might be a short delay. More like an apology for mainly the Google spider, all my favourite Russian spammers, and for the few human readers 😉
Today there was a fair in Nijmegen, and to avoid all the busyness, I decided to (almost) round up the province Gelderland, and head for the west.
Neder-Betuwe
First in line, the municipality Neder-Betuwe, located in Opheusden. Neder-Betuwe is also the name of the region. In Dodewaard, one of the towns, the nuclear reactor plant with a boiling water reactor has been decommisioned. Although it has been out of service for over 15 years, it will not be completely removed and demolished because they have to wait for the radioactive decay. With a 40-year waiting period of safe enclosure, the plant is expected to be demolished in 2045.
Buren
The town centre of Buren, is also called the “gemeentepaleis”, the town palace. According to the architects the design of the town hall is inspired by organic architecture. It costed almost 16m euro.
The town hall is indeed huge, but 16m euro? Decide for yourself. Besides that, the surrounding park costed an additional 2m euro.
Tiel
Although I didn’t take the effort to take pictures of the centre itself, I can really recommend it if you like old buildings and architecture. There are a lot of buildings with inner courts that you can look into, and the general atmosphere just feels historic.
On the other hand, the town hall is nothing like that 😉 You should see the contrast for yourself, with the buildings at the other side of the street.
Culemborg
Culemborg, formerly known as Kuilenburg, was a free state where the laws of Holland were not observed. As long as the debtor remained in Kuilenburg, the creditor was not allowed to enter the city. The Dutch saying “naar Kuilenburg gaan”, going to Kuilenburg, means withdrawing oneself from responsibilities, or going bankrupt.
Yes, the the revolving door was indeed closed, and although the rest is just glass, they must have thought that protecting the entrance was sufficient 
Lingewaal
Another municipality in the Tielerwaard is Lingewaal. The area is very sparsely populated and rural. The town hall is hidden behind a residential area.
Geldermalsen
On my way to the town hall of Geldermalsen in the equally named town, I passed the village Acquoy. I was doubting how to pronounce it. Some research on the internet shows that I am not the only one. I too thought it would be pronounced the French way, but apparently it is ‘akkooi’, and not ‘akwoi’, and definitely not ‘akkwah’ (I don’t speak IPA 😉 ). The next thought was, what does it mean? At home I learned that -oy (and similar suffices like -ooy, -oyen, -au, and -auwen) often indicate the presence of a forest on a river bank.
Neerijnen
The town hall of Neerijnen is beautiful with its moat, and green surroundings. A environment worthy of a castle.
And the obligatory self-shot.
Zaltbommel
Similar to the town hall of Neerijnen, the municipal office of Zaltbommel is not reachable with the motorcycle. Although in the first case I could understand it in some way. In the case of Zaltbommel I was rather surprised as the office is on an industrial area.
An interesting historical fact about the city is in its name. Zalt-bommel means the salty orchard. It originates from the time where the sea would have influence on the saltiness of the soil, through the river the Waal, before the direct connection between the river and the sea was closed. However, fruit trees don’t grow in salty soil, so…
Maasdriel
Originally the name of municipality was Driel, but the Germans changed it in 1944 to Maasdriel, to avoid confusing it with Driel near Heteren. If you understand Dutch, this page has a nice argumentative etymologic breakdown for Driel.
km: 235
km total: 3404
done: 9 (99)
to do: 316
